Baseball America on Tuesday completed its roundup of top 20 prospects throughout every league in affiliate baseball. Several Marlins made their rankings. In the short season Class-A New York-Penn League, Batavia second baseman Avery Romero came in at No. 8 and right-hander Trevor Williams was No. 14. Greensboro third baseman Colin Moran, the club's first-round pick last June, was tabbed the seventh-best prospect in the South Atlantic League. Left-hander Andrew Heaney, the Marlins' 2012 first-rounder and Moran's Arizona Fall League teammate, was No. 9 in the Florida State League.

PITTSBURGH - Baseball America this week is releasing the results of its annual "Best Tools" surveys of major and minor league managers. Not surprisingly, a couple of Marlins (Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez) made the list. Somewhat unexpectedly, some others (Adeiny Hechavarria, Marcell Ozuna) did not. Stanton topped the best power trio ahead of Paul Goldschmidt and Yasiel Puig, and Fernandez came in third behind Craig Kimbrel and Clayton Kershaw for best slider. Hechavarria and Ozuna did not crack the top three for best defensive shortstop and best outfield arm, respectively.

Last Monday, Miami was coming off a solid 5-0 week that helped the Hurricanes rise in the Baseball America rankings. Today, they're close to being an unranked team. The Hurricanes, coming off a tough 1-4 week that included two losses to Georgia Tech, a loss to Stetson and a loss to Bethune-Cookman, took a tumble in the publication's most recent ranking dropping from No. 13 to No. 25. It was the biggest drop of any ranked team. The ACC...

Zack Collins had a pretty good Monday. First, the University of Miami catcher earned a spot on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and not long after, he was named National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America. The recognition is the latest for the former American Heritage standout who earlier this year was named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the 2014 Freshman Hitter of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association,...

Zack Collins had a pretty good Monday. First, the University of Miami catcher earned a spot on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and not long after, he was named National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America. The recognition is the latest for the former American Heritage standout who earlier this year was named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the 2014 Freshman Hitter of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association,...

Jim Callis of Baseball America earlier this week put together his initial mock first round of the upcoming draft . The Marlins have the sixth overall pick and 12 picks in the top 10 rounds. They'll make their first four selections (sixth, 35th, 44th, and 73rd overall) on June 6 during a draft show airing on MLB Network at 7 p.m. Callis has the Marlins selecting Reese McGuire, a catcher out of Kentwood High School in Covington, Wash. Baseball America rates him the 12th-best available player.

Baseball America ranked six Marlins on their top 100 prospects : RHP Jose Fernandez (5), OF Christian Yelich (15), LHP Andrew Heaney (43), OF Jake Marisnick (64), OF Marcell Ozuna (75) and LHP Justin Nicolino (86). That's the most that have cracked the list since 2006, when the Marlins had seven on there led by Jeremy Hermida at No. 4. Entering the 1998 and 2000 seasons, the Marlins had an all-time high eight prospects in Baseball America's top 100. The most highly rated in those seasons were Mark Kotsay (No. 12)

Baseball America on Friday published the third of their four mock drafts . They project the Marlins' picking right-handed pitcher Braden Shipley out of Nevada sixth overall. The magazine ranks the hard-throwing Shipley as the eighth-best available player on their top 500 . The Marlins would be hard pressed to pass on college third basemen Kris Bryant (San Diego) or Colin Moran (North Carolina). The buzz is the Astros are giving serious consideration to taking Moran first overall, and the chances of Bryant being on the board once the Marlins are on the clock are slim.

Howdy folks. Haven't been producing any original Marlins content lately due to an unexpected medical issue, but figured I could at least toss up a few links, including Jose Fernandez heading up the Marlins' top 10 organizational prospects list according to Baseball America. First, a heart-felt thank you to everyone who's reached out to follow up on my condition and send prayers and well wishes. Last Wednesday night at the Winter Meetings I collapsed for the second time in three days.

The Miami Marlins' farm system hasn't been very productive in recent years, especially when it comes to starting pitching, but that could be about to change. Right-hander Jose Fernandez, the Marlins' first-round pick in 2011 out of Tampa Alonso High School, is featured on the cover of the current Baseball America magazine. Fernandez, ranked the top prospect in both leagues he graced this season (South Atlantic and Florida State), is deemed "among the elite" by the BA coverline. On pages 24-25, we learn Fernandez is a strike-thrower with a fastball that sits at 93-97 mph and topped out at 99 mph in his final start of the season. He didn't throw a single fastball under 95 mph in that final outing.

Former Archbishop McCarthy pitcher Brian Gonzalez has signed a professional contract with the Baltimore Orioles, passing up a chance to play for the Miami Hurricanes. Gonzalez, a 6-foot-3 left-hander recently named Florida Dairy Farmers' Mr. Baseball for 2014 as the state's best high school baseball player, was the Orioles' first pick (3 rd round, 90 th overall) in this year's draft. “I felt it was the right decision for me and my family,” Gonzalez told the Sun-Sentinel by phone from Sarasota, where he's preparing to being rookie ball for the Orioles.

Former Park Vista star Trea Turner was selected 13th overall by the San Diego Padres on Thursday in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Turner, who plays college baseball at North Carolina State, was rated as the No. 2 shortstop in the nation by Baseball America. He was also slated to go ninth overall in Baseball America's last mock draft, released Thursday afternoon. "We knew at the end of high school, he had a lot of potential," said Park Vista coach Larry Greenstein , who coached Turner.

Miami lefty Andrew Suarez became the first Hurricane selected in the 2014 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft Thursday night, when the Washington Nationals chose the redshirt sophomore with their second-round pick, 57th overall. Suarez, who was selected in the ninth round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of Columbus High ( Westchester ), was 6-3 with a 2.95 ERA this past spring. A 2014 third-team All-ACC selection, Suarez struck out 87 batters in 109.2 innings and walked only 15. Suarez pitched nine innings on four separate occasions this past spring, including a complete-game shutout of Bethune-Cookman in the NCAA Coral Gables Regional in his final start on May 30. He struck out a career-high 10 batters in the outing, which advanced Miami into the winner's bracket of the regional.

All the talk about fulfilling a childhood dream is genuine. So is the reality of what's at stake. Several Broward and Palm Beach County high school baseball players will either be cool or anxious with the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft starting today and ending Saturday. The three-day draft is a delicate balance. Yes, there's the excitement of being drafted by a Major League organization. Though that thrill will quickly be followed by the decision of playing in the minors or fulfilling an obligation to play college baseball.

No one was competing for Austin Gomber's signature when he signed with FAU In 2011. The lefty's fastball sat between 82 and 88 mph, depending on the day you saw him pitch, and Major League teams weren't interested in drafting and then developing the lanky 6-foot-5, 165 pound kid from Winter Garden. Three years and 238 collegiate strikeouts later, Gomber weighs in at 220 pounds, boasts a 93 mph fastball that compliments three other plus pitches, and is again eligible for the draft.

Coral Springs Christian's Touki Toussaint could very well be the first high school player taken from Broward and Palm Beach counties in this year's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, which begins Thursday night. As Ryan Clark noted in his profile on Toussaint , the pitcher is projected to be taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates at No. 13, according to Baseball America. But several other local baseball players are expected to be selected in the three-day draft, and MaxPreps ranks three of them among the nation's 10 best high school seniors at their position.

No surprise here. Baseball America on Friday unveiled its top 10 prospects for the Florida Marlins and outfielder Michael Stanton was atop the list. A power-hitting outfielder, Stanton is one of the top prospects in all of baseball. The top 10 is punctuated with familiar names. Logan Morrison (2), Matt Dominguez (4), Gaby Sanchez (5), Ryan Tucker (6), Kyle Skipworth (7) and Scott Cousins (9) all were in big league camp last spring. Chad James, who the Marlins selected in the first round last June, came in at No. 3 despite having yet to throw his first professional pitch.

College baseball's two major publications — Perfect Game USA and Baseball America — have spoken, and they predict that FAU baseball will finish the 2013 season atop the Sun Belt Conference. If prognostications hold true, the Owls would leave the Sun Belt as back-to-back regular season champions, though last season, the Owls failed to make the NCAA tournament after missing out on winning their first ever Sun Belt Conference tournament. Louisiana-Monroe came out at the end that winner-take-all bracket the victor, earning the Sun Belt's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and ending FAU's season prematurely.

Coral Springs Christian pitcher Touki Toussaint said he rarely reads what people write about him. If his mother, Kahaso Kiti, reads something about her son she will pass it along. Even then, there's no guarantee Toussaint will read it. As for the rest of the baseball world, there's a lot to read and a lot to say when it comes to Toussaint. So here's a collection of different websites ranging from scouting services to fan blogs even down to what MLB.com had to say about Toussaint: > Perfect Game, a scouting service, has kept constant updates on Toussaint over the last few seasons.

How Touki Toussaint became one of the top high school baseball prospects in America started by keeping a promise to a friend. When he was 10 years old, he gave up on baseball after striking out 22 times in 24 at-bats. Toussaint turned to other sports like hockey and soccer. Two years later, one of Toussaint's best friends wanted to hang out more. His friend agreed to play soccer as long as Toussaint gave baseball one more chance. Years later, the Coral Springs Christian senior is one of the most promising young pitchers in the nation.